Lobbyist seeks $100 million for science

A veteran La Jolla lobbyist has created a Super Political Action Committee (Super PAC) in hopes or raising up to $100 million to support candidates in the 2014 Congressional elections who'll push for increases in federal funding for basic scientific research, especially in the life sciences.

Jim Lantry's First in Science organization is one of the few Super PACs focused on science, and it has an ambitious fundraising agenda. There are more than 1,300 Super PACS, most of which have raised less than $1 million.

Super PACs are prohibited from making contributions to parties or candidates, but they can spend as much as they want on independent campaigns.

Lantry, 59, said First in Science will underwrite advertising and education campaigns to support candidates who are determined to raise federal research funding, particularly for the National Institutes of Health, which spends more than any other public agency on biomedical and life science research. Over the past decade, the percentage of NIH grant applications that receive funding has fallen from 30 percent to 18 percent. The decline was largely caused by federal budget problems.

Lantry's decision to create the Super PAC largely arose from his marriage last August to Linda Sherman, an immunologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. He said he has been learning about the struggles that many scientists have obtaining NIH money.

"Basic research is really something that needs to be funded by government. You can't do it profitably -- from a corporate standpoint," said Lantry, who has been a lobbyist since 1986. "Government should do what business can't. And that's where we need to start increasing our investments, because it is the only way we are going to grow our economy."

Lantry has a lot of experience in politics and government. The San Diego State University graduate worked as a consultant and advisor for Ed Struiksma, a former acting mayor of San Diego. He's also been involved in many political campaigns, and he made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1990 when he ran as a Republican in California's 44th Congressional District. But most of his professional life has been devoted to lobbying on behalf of such companies as General Electric, Dow, Mobil and Safeway Stores. He claims to have helped improve his client's collective financial standing by billions of dollars. Even so, he has set a difficult goal in trying to raise $100 million to broadly influence the 2014 Congressional elections. Only two organizations -- Restore our Future and American Crossroads-- had revenues exceeding $100 million during the 2012 election cycle.

Super PACS took off a pair of federal court decisions made it clear that the government cannot limit political spending by unions and corporations.

Lantry plans to hotly pursue money from corporations, saying, "The corporations that have achieved their success, like Google, came entirely from basic research. There are many, many billion dollar companies that exist solely because of federal research. I believe that those companies -- as well as drug companies and technologies companies -- that need basic research would be willing to put up enough money to see that it continues."